EU elections 2024: Millions across Europe head to the polls in final day of voting – live | European elections
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Kate Connolly
Tens of thousands of people turned out in several German cities on Saturday to protest against right-wing extremism.
“Herz statt Hetze” (loosely translated as “love instead of rioting”), “Vielfalt ohne Alternative” (“Diversity without alternatives (AfD)”) and “Menschen Rechte statt Rechte Menschen” (rather human rights than right-wing people” were among the banners seen among participants.
The meetings were called by the umbrella organization, which brought together a wide range of civil society groups under the motto: “Stop right-wing extremism” in Berlin, Dresden, Munich, Leipzig, Chemnitz and other places.
An estimated 30,000 people took part in a separate demonstration in Hamburg on Saturday evening.
In Leipzig, the home of the German Oscar-nominated actress Sandra Huellershe addressed the crowds, urging them to vote.
“I usually try to stay a little invisible when I’m not working,” she said. “But today is different. Today there are no more excuses… I am European.”
She urged people “not to allow themselves to be infected by the harsh tone of the right, by the inaccuracy and violence in their language, which has only one purpose: to destabilize and divide.” She said that despite far-right claims to the contrary, “there are no simple solutions”.
“Democracy, joint decision-making and joint decision-making, it’s tense. The mindset is strained,” she added, urging people to take their friends and family with them to the polling stations.
In France, the big question is whether people will turn to the far-right, anti-immigration party of Marine Le Pen.
French President Emmanuel Macron is polling far behind Le Pen’s National Rallywhich is expected to repeat its feat of topping the poll with an even bigger lead than in 2019 or 2014. The weakness of Macron’s party could see the centrist Renew group – dominated by French MEPs – lose its traditional third place in the European Parliament .
The Guardian’s Angelique Chrysafis has this report from Boulogne-Biancourt, a wealthy commune west of Paris.
Ursula von der Leyen, who seeks second five-year term as head of the European Commission, has voted and is calling on others to do the same.
Much is at stake for the German center-right politician, as the European Parliament, which sits in Brussels and Strasbourg, will also have the final say on whether she gets desired second term as President of the European Commission, one of the most influential positions in European politics.
Kate Connolly
In the southwestern German city of Karlsruhe, two members of the far-right AfD party were reportedly attacked by a masked gang wielding baseball bats outside a cafe on Saturday. Three people suffered “minor injuries,” according to authorities, who said Sunday that five people had been arrested following the attack.
in Germanyalong with the European Parliament elections, 100,000 local and regional elections are held in several countries.
The Karlsruhe bombing was the latest in a series of incidents involving violence against German politicians in the run-up to European elections.
In the city of Dresden on Saturday, an AfD lawmaker in the state parliament was attacked by a man, while in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, a firework thrown from the side narrowly missed lawmaker Bengt Berndt at an election rally held by the Social Democrats. A politician from the far-left Die Linke was also attacked in a supermarket in the state of Thuringia and verbally abused.
After these and many other incidents including stabbing of AfD party candidate Heinrich Koch in the southwestern city of Mannheim. The stabbing came less than a week after a 29-year-old police officer was stabbed to death by a 25-year-old Afghan man who appeared to have targeted an anti-Islam group called Pax Europa. The policeman died when he intervened to stop the attacker.
Last month, German Interior Minister Nancy Feiser vowed to tackle the rise in violence against politicians after an attack for Mathias Ecke, a member of the European Parliament from the GSDP, who was hospitalized after being attacked during a campaign.
Earlier, a 28-year-old who put up posters for the Greens was also injured in an attack. Former Berlin mayor Franziska Giphy was attacked in May at an event in a Berlin library by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing an unidentified hard object.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll is in Brussels, where some have given their all for the country triple choices:
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has tried to underline the importance of these elections, painting a clear picture of what he says is at stake.
He told reporters:
Our vote decides whether the future we are building in Europe, and therefore also in Spain, is a future of progress or a future of regression.
It decides whether we want a Europe that continues to persevere in a united response to the challenges and crises ahead, or whether we will choose a reactionary Europe; one of contraction, regression, reaction.
That is why I think it is important – with our vote we decide whether we want a Europe that moves forward or a Europe that moves backwards.
Lo que se resolve hoy para el futuro de España y de Europa es de una enorme Importancia.
Animo a la participation, porque es el voto el que resolve si queremos una Europa de avances or una Europa de retroceso.
Hoy, con nuestro voto, decidimos. pic.twitter.com/AX3lDaMJNd
— Pedro Sanchez (@sanchezcastejon) June 9, 2024
Up to 450 million citizens across the EU are being urged to go to the polls in these elections – a figure that in some countries also includes 16-year-olds.
This time there was an expansion in the youth vote, with Belgium and Germany joining Austria and Malta in giving 16-year-olds the right to vote.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk appeared to urge people to go and vote, writing to X: “Bad politicians are elected by good citizens who stay at home.”
Złych polityków wybierają dobrzy obywatele, who stay in the house.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) June 9, 2024
Lily Bayer
At 6:30 in the morning, the halls of a school in the center of Budapest were quiet.
Seven people were sitting at a long table when I entered the room designated for my voting district.
After they checked my name in a book with a list of those entitled to vote, I signed and received five ballots: one ballot for the European Parliament elections and four for local elections, including the mayor of Budapest.
In the European race, all eyes are on Tissa, a new party led by a former government insider Peter Madjar.
Magyar positions himself as a centrist and seeks to challenge the dominant position of the ruling Fidesz party in Hungarian politics. “We are building a country where there is no right, no left – only Hungarian,” he declared on rally in the capital yesterday.
Fidesz, led by Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, enjoys the support of 50% of outright voters, according to a survey published Friday by pollster Medián. Meanwhile, Magyar’s Tisza party stands at 27%.
The prime minister, who is the EU’s most Kremlin-friendly leader, focused his election campaign on what he described as a platform of “peace”.
The ruling party has waged an intense campaign claiming – without providing evidence – that there is a global conspiracy to force Hungary into direct war with Russia and that Hungary’s opposition is being led by the West.
One name is crossed out on the ballot for mayor of Budapest: Alexandra Sentkiralithe candidate of the ruling Fidesz party, who withdrew from the race on Friday and endorsed another candidate, David Knights.
Vitézy is a challenge Gergely Carachonithe incumbent president, who is supported by multiple opposition parties.
Along with the elections for the European Parliament, general elections and regional elections are also taking place in Belgium today.
But the national vote – expected to see a surge in support for a far-right party that wants to break up the country – is dominating the discourse in Belgium.
Polls suggest the right will rise in Flanders and the left in predominantly French-speaking Wallonia, suggesting potentially fiendishly complex coalition talks in the coming weeks and months.
My colleague Lisa O’Carroll has this letter from Brussels:
In the first European elections since Britain left the EU, voters must choose 720 MPs in the only directly elected transnational parliament in the world.
This year’s vote is being closely watched according to poll forecasts significant gains for far-right and anti-establishment partieswhich would have far-reaching consequences for the EU’s political agenda.
My colleague Jennifer Rankin from Brussels has put together this election primer:
Millions across Europe are expected to vote on the final day of the European Parliament elections
Good morning. It’s Super Sunday – today 21 countries in Europe go to the polls, including Italy, which votes over two days.
Among the 21 countries voting today are the other three major EU economies: Spain, Germany and France.
We’ll be following the action throughout the day and into the night, with a fairly definitive picture of Parliament expected to emerge around 1am on Monday CET (midnight BST). Estimated results are expected to appear earlier in the evening.
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